Biography

Jeffery J. Ventrella

Jeffery J. Ventrella serves as senior counsel and senior vice president of training for Alliance Defending Freedom. In this role, he oversees the design and implementation of the ADF Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a renowned legal internship program for outstanding law students, and the ADF Areté Academy, a corresponding program for college upperclassmen and recent graduates on a path to future leadership positions in law and public policy.

Ventrella is a scholar and commentator. As an approved speaker for The Federalist Society, he is an appointed member of the society’s executive committee and guides its Religious Liberties Practice Group. His scholarly posts include serving as a research fellow and member of an ad hoc graduate thesis committee for the Department of Philosophy and Constitutional Law at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He is also a distinguished fellow of law and culture with the Center for Cultural Leadership and a fellow with the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

His book The Cathedral Builder: Pursuing Cultural Beauty (2007) is part of the ADF Blackstone Core Curriculum Project, which he also edits. Additionally, he has contributed to or edited nine books.

Prior to joining ADF in 2000, Ventrella litigated for nearly 15 years, concentrating in complex litigation and appellate advocacy. He obtained a B.M.E. degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Northern Colorado, where he specialized in trumpet performance. Ventrella received a Ph.D. in church and state studies from Whitefield Theological Seminary and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. He is admitted to the state bar of Idaho, the U.S. Supreme Court, and multiple federal district and appellate courts.